Paint Your Walls in the Victorian Style

Karen Bateman has always “loved Victoriana and became a collector in high school”; when she and her husband redid their new home in the Victorian style, she began by by revving up the color scheme.

On the exterior she turned the gray and white gal into a real painted lady, picking out the two-story house’s rich architectural details in purple, black and two shades of gray. When it comes to painting a home’s façade, Karen advises homeowners to select colors from the same value card—if you do, they’ll coordinate perfectly.

Inside, she used decorative wall treatments and vintage-style paint colors to highlight the home’s Victorian details. Karen opted for the compartmentalized look that was so characteristic of these houses of yesteryear. “I painted each room a different vibrant color,” she says. The master bedroom, for instance, is a midnight blue imbued with regal purple that Karen says “changes color by the hour as the sun moves through the room.” It’s the perfect setting for the 1920s Egyptian Revival chaise lounge. The mantel, which was bought on eBay and shipped from Philadelphia, is in the Eastlake style.

In the dining room, acid green apple walls set the table for Spanish Revival chairs upholstered in burgundy damask. “I thought it was going to be difficult to find fabrics to match the wall colors,” she says. “But in the bedroom, for example, I made the draperies out of the curtains.”

In the guest bathroom, Karen’s chosen color scheme—celery green with lots of gray—is picked up in the lacy shower curtain, and a coordinating 19th-century French cabinet that houses the sink.

And in other rooms, Karen used decorative painting to make bold statements. In the foyer and parlor, for instance, Karen defined the walls with the Victorian dado-filler-frieze treatment. But instead of wallpapering the three sections, she used ragging to create texture and elaborate decorative stencils to bring in period detailing.

She also brought ornamentation to the plain side panels of the front door by painting their clear panes to resemble stained glass. “This is really easy and inexpensive to do when you use a paint epoxy product like Gallery Glass,” Karen says. “It doesn’t take much training.”

Have you recently repainted your home and want to share your story? Are you considering repainting in the Victorian style and have questions? Please let us know in the comments below.